TΞLΞVIZOR – Cable Ghoul

Recommendation: ☹

Released through Unchill Records in 2016, Cable Ghoul is a sixteen track classic-style vaporwave album in about as many minutes. Taking cue from like-minded artists computer slime, ghosting, and luxury elite,1 TΞLΞVIZOR composes songs with short track lengths with a hard focus on sample curation. Each track is constructed from instrumental adult contemporary/muzak or from television samples, which fits the theme of the “cable ghoul” to which the album title alludes. Tracks have little screw; the editing centers around the basic classic-style techniques of equalization, pitch-/tempo-shifting, and mid-range focus to accentuate a dusty and aged feeling. However, few of these tracks go further than those three tropes – and while these tropes aren’t necessarily a bad thing on which to rely, such reliance does make it harder for an album to stand out from the classic-style pack. Here, the samples are not all that unique enough to be memorable, with the muzak and television advertisements being pretty much what one expects without any further qualification.

The concept of Cable Ghoul has potential, as seen in the success of albums such as telenights by ghosting.2 Were it to evolve further than the same old classic-style production techniques, then the ghost-in-the-TV theme could be a successful one. Plus one for the Chuck Norris reference though.